Cameroon is in the process of
distributing free insecticide-treated nets to its entire population. It’s not
exactly an easy process, especially when you consider all of the normal
difficulties of such a project and then try to have it carried out in Cameroon.
In the South West region, the distribution was supposed to take place several
months ago, for example, but had to be postponed because the cars could not
deliver the nets to villages due to the road conditions. Also, the first company
hired to distribute the nets ultimately refused to do the job. Eventually, however, the nets did arrive at our health center, and then we had to wait another month
or two for every other health center in the region to receive their nets before
we were allowed to give out our own. But, apparently as of several weeks ago,
all hospitals received their nets because we were permitted to give them out! A
census was done by community health representatives in the previous weeks to
record how many people slept in a house and prescribe nets based on that
number. The family was given a ticket, stating how many nets they should
receive, and the following week, the family was supposed to come to the health
center to turn in the receipt and collect their nets. It was a big day at the
health center.
Staff and volunteers were there to accept customers, record
results, and distribute the nets.
I gave several lectures about malaria and the
importance of using mosquito nets, and health care workers demonstrated how to
hang them. In all, we had four days of distribution and gave out nets to at least
over 400 people on the two days I was involved. Most importantly, there was some pretty great style.
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